Several people have previously mentioned Dust Bunny (2025) (HBO) and I recall some mentioned it isn’t really “horror” so I had that advantage going in. I really, REALLY liked it! Much of the cinematography reminded me of Wes Anderson.
On an enjoyment level: 5/5.
The theme this rainy day was A.I.P. sequels. Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (1959) and The People That Time Forgot (1977) both on Amazon Prime. Both new to me, but I’m quite familiar with their predecessors.
Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow is a sequel to Hot Rod Gang (1958) which was mostly notable for a performance by Gene Vincent. The sequel goes a little bit further in solidifying the formula that would be used for A.I.P.'s Beach Party movies a few years later. The main attraction is the slang used by the teens (“He’s got static in his attic. Completely zonk”.) and the technical jargon used by the hotrodders. I’m not sure how much is real and how much was just the writers riffing. The proto-Scooby Doo ending will be of interest to anyone familiar with legendary creature designer, Paul Blaisdell. Kinda heartbreaking too if you read up on Blaisdell’s short career.
The People That Time Forgot. Okay, someone just took the script to Beneath the Planet of the Apes and adapted it to work as a sequel to The Land that Time Forgot. The lost hero from the previous film is even named Tyler (missed Taylor, by that much). A weird thing about this cheapie with Doctor Who level production values (the cave dinosaur scene is so bad it’s good) is that it is chock full of character actors usually found in big budget blockbusters. Sarah Douglas (Superman, Conan), Shane Rimmer and Milton Reid (numerous James Bond films), Kiran Shah (stunt double in Star Wars, Raiders, Dark Crystal…), and even David Prowse the same year he debuted as Darth Vader. Also featured is the super hot native girl Nova…uh, Ajor played by singer Dana Gillespie. All balanced out by a spectacularly bad lead performance by d-lister Patrick Wayne.
My favorite little reference is that Clover’s logo is secretly the big freeway planned by the villain.
Just got back from Lee Cronin’s “The Mummy”. Pretty scary, a bit too much body horror for my taste though. Making a horror story around a little girl who has her eyes slightly too far apart is like its own genre at this point.
(makes clicking sound with tongue in agreement)
Anna Taylor-Joy always has this as a backup plan if her career goes south.
Mind blown!
I watched an old B&W movie called “I Married A Witch” with Veronica Lake. Not laugh out loud funny but plenty of humorous bits. Plus Veronica Lake. Too bad she and her career died young from alcohol abuse.
I just watched “Little Miss Sunshine” (HBO) for the first time in many years. I’d forgotten how much I loved that film. The horn on the VW just slays me.
The “Creature” costume that Blaisdell came up with was slight variation o n the one he made for The She Creature, but he removed the stylized hair and breasts and the stomach corrugation. famous Monsters of Filmland provided a side-by-side shot of the two costumes so you could compare them.
I haven’t seen that film in eons. It’s among the “Films that Time Forgot” (even though I didn’t list it in that thread), because I haven’t seen it on VHS or DVD. It was on Amazon Prime, huh? I’ll have to heck out their other offerings.
“Every night with the F**ing chicken” is a thing in my house. Especially with current grocery prices.
Last night I watched Finestkind on Paramount+ with Tommy Lee Jones and Ben Foster. This is another movie I put on to fall asleep to and ended up riveted. Great script and great cast. I also have a new crush on Jenna Ortega, which is a bit creepy because I’ve only ever seen her in Wednesday
Out of boredom, I watched “Payback” on Prime. A '99 action movie with Mel Gibson, which mainly consisted of him chain smoking in between killing people. Boring and stupid.
I’m pretty sure the costumes are one and the same; just altered for Dragstrip, after being reused for Voodoo Woman and How to Make a Monster. Apparently, it’s the only costume Blaisdell liberated from A.I.P, but it was eventually destroyed when his house flooded in 1979.
Set in the Viet Nam war, a group of Green Berets go missing. A LLRP group is sent in to find them and stumble upon a (secret) Russian particle accelerator who’s purpose it is to create wormholes intended to allow Soviet military forces to teleport anywhere in the world, and that a malfunction during its first test opened a wormhole that transported the dinosaurs to the present day.
This movie has it all, it’s very ambitious and low budget but somehow manages to pull off a decent and enjoyable movie - if you can suspend disbelief that long!
I only made it half-way through. I felt like it relied too much on the night scenes to cover up deficiencies in the effects. And the actor playing the colonel? What a ham!
I’m sure it is, too. Sorry if you got the impression that I was suggesting another. For all the impressiveness of Blaisdell’s creations, they were done on the cheap, and he definitely re-used things.
The first time I saw that movie the chicken scene confused me. The chicken was from a placed called Dinah’s in Culver City that I’d been going to since I was a kid. That naturally made me think they were in L.A. Then when they got on the road, it turns out they were going to the L.A. area. Otherwise, I loved that movied, too. Steve Carrell was really good in it.
Thanks to everybody who recommended Dust Bunny. I’d probably never have watched it without the recos. I loved it. It was gorgeous to look at, and not too gorey. Very funny as well. I loved the rabbit shumai. It looked just like the netsuke on the cover of the book The Hare with Amber Eyes. All the dim sum looked scrumptious. And the little rabbit throwaway visuals were a nice touch, too. I loved Sheila Atim’s performance as the FBI agent. She was styled perfectly. I was very happy to see that her character survived in the ironing board cupboard
I watched this on Netflix. It is the worst movie I’ve seen in 10 years, and I’m hard-pressed to think of a worse one farther back. As you say, it’s ridiculous, but even worse, it is extremely boring. The main character is completely emotionless. There are no stakes in any of the fights because Lucy is essentially invincible and you don’t care about any other characters.
Do not watch it. It’s not a so-bad-it’s-fun type of movie. I’m mad at Netflix for recommending it, and I’m mad at myself for watching beyond the first 15 minutes.
I have to agree - his accent was so over the top it kind of pulled me out of the movie. However if you look at it as a campy movie it works. The second half did sow the dinos better.